Through the Suez Canal it connects to the Mediterranean Sea, and to the Arabian Sea in the south it is connected by the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (“Gate of Tears”) to the Gulf of Aden. The Red Sea is the saltiest sea of the World's oceans and the only body of water in the world into which no river flows.
Collegiate YouTube
1 / 5
✪ Underwater world of Makadi, Red Sea, Egypt. Underwater World of Makadi, Egypt 2015. (4K)
✪ EGYPT 2019 RED SEA IN WINTER | SUNRISE Garden 5★ HURGHADA. ALL INCLUSIVE. Holidays in Egypt VLOG
✪ Red Sea on a yacht. Weather in the Red Sea. Fishing on a yacht and a very long crossing in different weather
✪ Sharks in Sharm El Sheikh - Shark attack in Sharm El Sheikh
✪ Coral reef: Underwater world of Egypt. / Documentary
Subtitles
History reference
The phrase "Red Sea" is a direct translation of the Greek " erythra thalassa" (Greek Ερυθρὰ Θάλασσα ), Latin "Mare Rubrum", Arabic " El Bahr El Ahmar" (البحر الأحمر), Somali " Badda Cas"and tigrinya" Kay Bahri» (ቀይሕ ባሕሪ). In modern Hebrew, the sea is also referred to as Red - " ha-Yam ha-hell” (הַיָּם הָאָדוֹם ), but is traditionally identified with what is called in the Bible “Reed” (יַם סוּף ).
There are several versions of the origin of the name of the Red Sea.
The first version explains the origin of the name of this sea from a misreading of the Semitic word, consisting of three letters: "x", "m" and "r". From these letters in ancient inscriptions the name of the Semitic people - the Himyarites - who lived in South Arabia before its conquest by the Arabs, was composed. In ancient South Arabian writing, short vowels were not graphically depicted in writing. Therefore, an assumption appeared that when the Arabs deciphered the South Arabian inscriptions, the combination of "x", "m" and "r" was read as the Arabic "ahmar" (red).
Another version makes the name of the sea dependent on one or another part of the world. In the mythical tales of many peoples of the world, the cardinal points are associated with certain color shades. For example, red symbolizes the south, white - the east, black (for a number of peoples of Asia) - the north. Hence the name "Black Sea" does not mean "a sea with dark, black water", but "a sea located in the north." After all, the Turks called this sea Kara-Deniz, the ancient tribes who spoke Iranian languages - Akhshaena (dark), and the Scythians Tama, which is also associated with the meaning "dark". As for the Red Sea, the word "red" seems to indicate its southern location, and not at all the color. sea water.
According to another version, the sea was named so because of the seasonal bloom of microscopic algae Trichodesmium erythraeum near the surface of the water. An excess of the red pigment phycoerythrin in the alga causes the water in the Red Sea to “bloom”, and the latter becomes reddish-brown instead of blue-green.
One of the first descriptions of the Red Sea was made in the II century BC. e. Greek historian and geographer Agatarchides of Cnidus in his work "On the Red Sea (Eritrean)". In the 16th century, the name was allowed "Suez" .
Physical-geographical sketch
General information
The Red Sea washes the shores of Asia and Africa: Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel and Jordan.
The area of the Red Sea is 450,000 km², almost 2/3 of the sea lies in the tropical zone.
Volume - 251,000 km³.
According to various estimates, the length (in the direction north - south) is from 1932 to 2350 km, width - from 305 to 360 km. The shores are slightly indented, their outlines are mainly predetermined by fault tectonics, and the eastern and western shores are parallel to each other almost along their entire length.
In the bottom topography stand out: coastal shallows (up to a depth of 200 m), the widest in the southern part of the sea, with numerous coral and bedrock islands; so-called main trough- a narrow depression that occupies most of the seabed, on average to a depth of 1000 m; axial trough - a narrow and deep gutter, as if cut into the main trough, with a maximum depth, according to various sources, from 2604 to 3040 meters. The average depth of the sea is 437 m.
There are few islands in the northern part of the sea (for example: Tiran Island) and only south of 17 ° N. sh. they form several groups with numerous islands: the Dahlak archipelago in the southwestern part of the sea is the largest, while the Farasan, Suakin, Khanish archipelagos are smaller. There are also separate islands - for example, Kamaran.
In the north of the sea there are two gulfs: Suez and Aqaba, which connects to the Red Sea through the al-Tiran Strait. A fault passes along the Gulf of Aqaba, so the depth of this bay reaches large values (up to 1800 meters).
The peculiarity of the Red Sea is that not a single river flows into it, and rivers usually carry silt and sand with them, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red Sea is crystal clear.
The Red Sea is the saltiest sea in the world's oceans. 1 liter of water here contains 41 g of salts (in the open ocean - 34 g, in the Black Sea - 18, in the Baltic - only 5 grams of salt per liter of water). During the year, no more than 100 mm of atmospheric precipitation falls over the sea (and even then not everywhere and exclusively in the winter months), while 20 times more evaporates in the same time - 2000 mm. (This means that more than half a centimeter of water evaporates from the sea surface every day). With the complete absence of water supply from land, this water deficit in the sea is compensated only by the flow of water from the Gulf of Aden. In the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, there are simultaneously currents entering the Red Sea and leaving it. Almost 1000 km³ more water is brought into the sea every year than is taken out of it. It takes only 15 years for a complete water exchange in the Red Sea.
In 1886, during an expedition on the Russian corvette "Vityaz" in the Red Sea, at a depth of 600 meters, waters with an abnormally high temperature were discovered: 21. The Swedish ship "Albatross" in 1948 also discovered similar waters, moreover, with abnormally high salinity. The presence of hot metal-bearing brines at great depths in the Red Sea was finally established in 1964 by an expedition on the American ship Discovery, when the water temperature from a depth of 2.2 km was 44 degrees, and its salinity was 261 grams per liter. By 1980, 15 places were discovered on the bottom of the Red Sea with similar waters, which, together with adjacent bottom sediments, are highly enriched in metals:33.
Geological structure and bottom topography
The Red Sea is very young. Its formation began about 25 million years ago, when earth crust a crack appeared and the East African rift valley was formed. Under the action of centrifugal force due to the rotation of the Earth, the African plate separated from the Arabian plate, and their turn with the formation of a "spiral" twisting to the northeast, and between them in the earth's crust a pit was formed, which gradually, over thousands of years, was filled with sea water. The plates are constantly moving - the relatively flat shores of the Red Sea diverge into different sides at a rate of 1 cm per year, or 1 m per century (scientists [ who?] say that at this rate of expansion in the next 200 million years, the Red Sea will become as wide as the Atlantic Ocean) - but also at different speeds relative to each other: the movement of the African plate was very slow, while the Arabian plate moved much faster and, as a result, the Somali The plate began to move east. The spiral movement of the Arabian Plate led to the locking of part of the vast Tethys Ocean, which washed Africa, and subsequently the formation of the Mediterranean Sea. This is confirmed by the fact that rocks and minerals characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea have also been found in the Red Sea. And the further rotation of the Arabian and Somali plates opened a strait in the south, into which waters poured Indian Ocean leading eventually to the formation of the Gulf of Aden. The movement of continental plates continued to influence the terrain. To the south, a large segment that broke away from the Arabian Plate eventually closed the gap that formed between the African and Somali plates. The sea dried up here, and a valley formed, known as the "triangle Afar". This geologically peculiar region has given scientists a lot of information about the history of the planet and the evolution of mankind. The lowest segment of the "Afar Triangle" is currently slowly submerging under water and eventually will again be below sea level.
The changes, of course, affected not only this local area of the earth's surface. The shift of the Syrian-African fault to the north led to the formation of the Suez Bay. The Arabian and African plates continued their movement at different speeds (this difference in speeds was due to the different distance of the plates from the axis of rotation). The inevitable friction between the plates created another valley, much like the bed of the Red Sea. This fault starts from the Strait of Tiran and goes further north to the Gulf of Eilat, as well as the valleys in which the Dead Sea and the Arava lie. The end point of these valleys is Syria. Incessant tectonic activity shifted the Suez Bay to the north - towards the Mediterranean Sea. Human intervention completed this process in 1869 with the opening of the Suez Canal. The waters of the Mediterranean Sea flowed into the Red Sea and the migration of underwater flora and fauna began in both directions.
Hydrological regime
Strong evaporation of warm water has turned the Red Sea into one of the saltiest in the world. the globe: 38-42 grams of salt per liter.
Climate
The climate on the coast of almost the entire Red Sea is tropical desert, and only the far north belongs to the Mediterranean climate. The air temperature in the coldest period (December-January) during the day is 20-25 degrees, and in the hottest month - August, it exceeds 35-40 degrees and even sometimes reaches 50 degrees. Due to the hot climate off the coast of Egypt, the water temperature even in winter does not drop below +20 degrees, and in summer it reaches +27.
Bioresources
The quality and diversity of corals, marine flora and fauna of the Red Sea is unrivaled in the Northern Hemisphere. The tourist boom that has swept the Egyptian Red Sea coast in recent years is largely due to the unique and incredibly rich underwater world of this tropical sea, the popularization of scuba diving.
Stretching along the entire Egyptian coast Coral reefs are a kind of vital center that attracts many fish. The variety of forms of coral is amazing, which can be round, flat, branched, as well as have other fantastic shapes and color range- from pale yellow and pink to brown and blue. But only living corals retain their color, after death they lose their soft integumentary tissues and only a white calcium skeleton remains.
Bottlenose dolphins, various species of striped dolphin and killer whales are widespread in the Red Sea. It is quite possible to meet underwater and with a green turtle. Amazing elongated echinoderms - sea cucumbers - live on the seabed, sharks are found, they have chosen the coast of Sudan for themselves. Some [ who?] ichthyologists and divers claim that sharks have a rather peaceful disposition, and they are extremely timid. Seeing people, they tend to retreat as soon as possible. Moray eels, adapted to life on reefs, can reach 3 meters in length and have a rather intimidating appearance. But, in general, if they are not teased, they are not dangerous to humans. Here you can also meet Napoleon fish, which got its name because of the characteristic protrusion on its head, which resembles headdress of the French emperor *. These fish are especially numerous near the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Differ in bright coloring of fish-angels and fish-butterflies,
It has been repeatedly proven that the Red Sea is one of the warmest bodies of water on the entire planet Earth. Scientists explain this by the presence of sources at its bottom, the temperature indicators of which exceed +60 0 C. Only a thin layer of the mantle located above the core separates part of the ocean from the red-hot lava. By the way, the depth of the Red Sea is not the same.
Where did the name come from?
There are several versions of how this part of the vast ocean got its name.
- The most plausible is the assumption that under the conditions of the desert sun, the rocks prevailing in the area radiate a pink-red color. It is worth noting that it looks just fine.
- Less likely is the option that sailors were amazed by the beauty of the expanses of bright blue, it is believed that sometimes they were transformed into red. This is more like a fantasy, because even though the coral bloom changes the color of the water, it doesn't change that much.
There are also assumptions about the connection of the cardinal points with certain colors. According to the mythical tales of the peoples of the world, red symbolizes southern part the globe, respectively. White color- east, and black color - north. The first to describe the Red Sea in Israel was a geographer, historian, named Agatarchides of Cnidus. In the second century BC, he dedicated a whole book to this sea.
Important! Although it is also impossible to say that there are too many red rocks in this area. Therefore, one can only guess about the reasons for such a name.
Physico-geological essay
Underwater scenes of the Red Sea
Photos of the Red Sea are fascinating. Its waters wash the shores of the largest part of the world - Asia and the second largest continent - Africa, on the surface of which are:
- the states of Egypt, Israel;
- the countries of Eritrea and Sudan;
- the republics of Yemen and Djibouti;
- Kingdom of Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
And it manifested itself due to the formation of a hollow on the outer solid shell of the Earth. Over the course of 40,000,000 years, it was transformed into the vast East African Rift.
The recorded greatest depth of the described sea is 2,211 m. It is limited by the depth of the formed fault. By area, this part of the ocean occupies 450 thousand m 2, and 2/3 of it is located in the tropical zone of the globe. As for the length, according to various indicators, it ranges from 1932-2350 m, and the width is 305-360 m. The banks are considered not very indented, their outlines are determined by fault tectonics. Even in places of the greatest depth of the Red Sea (2211 m), the eastern and western shores are parallel.
Interesting! As a result, two tectonic plates moved away from each other. They are still moving. This explains why every century sea shores move away by 1 m. The Atlantic Ocean was formed in the same way.
It is noteworthy that in the south the Red Sea borders on Gulf of Aden due to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. And in the north there is a narrow isthmus in itself, connecting this part of the ocean with the Mediterranean. In order to avoid having to go around the African continent in the process of navigation, the Suez Canal was built at one time .
Attention! It is difficult to say exactly how deep the Red Sea is, because different sources indicate different numbers. According to some reports, it is 2811 m, but there are other data.
Distinctive characteristics
Tropical fish in the Red Sea
The average and greatest depth of the Red Sea, again, according to various sources, is 437 and 3039 m, this information is already more reliable. As for its main differences, one of them is the lack of recharge of the reservoir, i.e. no rivers flow into it. Due to this, its waters always remain crystal clear, being ideal conditions for the life of corals and various fish. However, due to the expansion of the coast, namely the divergence of tectonic plates, the waters of the Arabian waters are sent here, which happens all the time.
Red Sea medium depth 437 m is still distinguished by very warm water, and this is within the entire planet. Due to the local climate, in which the temperature of the liquid does not fall below +18, +19 degrees Celsius, corals do not die.
In summer, tourists bathe in +27 degree water. As for the zone where the boundaries of volcanic plates are located, there, due to volcanic activity sea liquid warms up to +60 degrees.
Photos of the Red Sea under water show that voids form at the divergence of tectonic plates, which are filled with magma over time. This is a fiery-liquid mass rising from the crust of the planet Earth. Due to this, all these depressions are filled with minerals.
Interesting! If at least on the upper part of the deposits to collect the metals located there, then their assessment will exceed several billion euros.
Weather conditions on the ground
The indicator of the distance from the surface to the bottom of the Red Sea is expressed in meters, and even in places of its maximum indicators, warm water prevails. Local climatic conditions differ in dry air, and this is due to the location of this part of the ocean between two deserts. As for precipitation, here they occur only in winter time of the year.
The climate of the Red Sea region promotes the reproduction of several thousand species of fish, which are characteristic only for this area. The same applies to 250 species of corals. A unique opportunity to see all the beauties is scuba diving, by the way, the maximum depth of the Red Sea, which is 3039 m, provides ample opportunities for diving.
Red sea- the inland sea of the Indian Oceanlocated between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa in a tectonic depression. One of the warmest and saltiest seas.
Washes the shores of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Jordan.
Resorts: Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Safaga, El Gouna (Egypt), Eilat (Israel)
The Red Sea is connected to the north by the Suez Canal. mediterranean sea, in the south - the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with the Arabian Sea.
The peculiarity of the Red Sea is that not a single river flows into it, and rivers usually carry silt and sand with them, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red Sea is crystal clear.
The climate on the Red Sea coast is dry and warm, the air temperature in the coldest period (December-January) during the day is 20-25 degrees, and in the hottest month - August, does not exceed 35-40 degrees. Due to the hot climate off the coast of Egypt, the water temperature even in winter does not drop below +20 degrees, and in summer it reaches +27.
strong fumes warm water turned the Red Sea into one of the saltiest on the globe: 38-42 grams of salt per liter.
The length of the Red Sea today is 2350 km, the width is 350 km (in its widest part), the maximum depth reaches 3000 meters in its central part. The area of the Red Sea is 450 thousand sq. km.
The Red Sea is very young. Its formation began about 40 million years ago, when a crack appeared in the earth's crust and the East African Fault was formed. The African continental plate separated from the Arabian one, and between them in the earth's crust a pit was formed, which was gradually filled with sea water over thousands of years. The plates are constantly moving, so the relatively flat shores of the Red Sea diverge in different directions at a rate of 10 mm per year, or 1 m per century.
In the north of the sea there are two bays: Suez and Aqaba, or Eilat. It is along the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat) that the fault passes. Therefore, the depth of this bay reaches large values (up to 1600 meters). The two gulfs are separated from each other by the Sinai Peninsula, in the south of which is located famous resort Sharm El Sheikh.
There are few islands in the northern part of the sea, and only to the south of 17°N. they form numerous groups, the largest of them is Dahlak in the southwestern part of the sea.
Location: between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa
Washes the shores of countries: Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel, Jordan
Square: 438,000 km²
Maximum depth: 2211 m
Coordinates: 20°44"41.1"N 37°55"27.9"E
The Red Sea, located in a tectonic basin and being the inland sea of the third largest Indian Ocean on our planet, is considered the youngest and most interesting in terms of the diversity of flora and fauna.
It is located between the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. The Red Sea is connected to the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, through the well-known Suez Canal.
Speaking of the Red Sea, one should pay attention to the fact that it is considered the most salty of all the seas that are part of the World Ocean, washing all the continents of our planet.
“Why is this sea the most salty of all the seas?”, A person who does not know the geography and location of the Red Sea very well may ask. The thing is that the Red Sea is the only sea in the whole world into which no freshwater river flows. Naturally, it is significantly inferior in salt content to the Dead Sea, however, it should be remembered that almost no living organism is able to survive in the Dead Sea, and the Red Sea amazes even experienced divers with an abundance of life forms. And this despite the fact that the salinity of the water of the magnificent Red Sea is up to 60 grams of salts per liter of water taken for laboratory analysis.
As a comparison, it is worth bringing the salinity of the water, which is popular among domestic tourists of the Black Sea - it is only 18 grams of salt per liter of water.
In addition, describing the Red Sea, which is rightfully considered one of seven wonders of the underwater world, it is impossible not to mention that this is also the warmest sea on the planet. It is warmed not only by the rays of the sun, but also by the earth's mantle, that is, in the Red Sea, unlike other seas, not cold, but warm layers of water rise from the depths. In winter, the water warms up to 21 - 23 degrees Celsius, and in summer up to +30. Due to the high temperature of the water and its constant evaporation, the Red Sea became the most saline in the world, naturally, after the Dead.
Origin of the name Red Sea
The Red Sea, according to the most modest assumptions of scientists, originated 25 million years ago. Therefore, it is impossible to know exactly why the Red Sea was called the "Red Sea", alas. There are only a few versions of the origin of the name of the Red Sea, although, it is worth mentioning right away, none of them can be considered reliable.
According to the first version, the name comes from the ancient language of the Himyarites, a people who lived in South Arabia long before these lands were captured by the Arabs. The conquerors tried for a long time to decipher the script of the Semites and decided to read the three letters "X", "M" and "R" in their own way - "ahmar", which means red in translation. This assumption can be considered as a version that does not deserve special attention: it is difficult to imagine that the Arabs decided to add vowels to a foreign language in order to get a word that would be familiar to them, because they were engaged in deciphering the language, and not merging it with their own.
The second version, according to historians, is more plausible, although it is associated with the myths of many peoples who inhabited the territory near the Red Sea. Each of the parts of the world was associated with a certain color. The red color was associated with the south, where the sea was located, hence its name. According to documents that have survived to this day and have been deciphered by scientists, the Red Sea was mentioned as early as the 2nd century BC, and in the 16th century, some researchers called this sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean - Suez.
As mentioned above, the sea was formed even at the time when India began its movement to Asian mainland, and this event took place long before the appearance of the first person on Earth, therefore, scientists will certainly not be able to find out why the most salty sea, which is part of the oceans, was called "Red".
Long story of the youngest sea
Over the entire period of its existence, the Red Sea, despite its young age (of course, according to geological standards), has experienced a number of changes and cataclysms. For 25 million years, which for our planet can be considered only a short moment, the level of the World Ocean has constantly fluctuated, which, by the way, is happening now. Glaciers melted, new ones formed; the waters of the oceans either rose or fell by tens or even hundreds of meters. As soon as the level of the World Ocean dropped significantly, the Red Sea turned into a huge salt Lake, where the salt content was several times higher than the amount of salt per liter of water in the Dead Sea.
By the way, at the moment, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the sea with the ocean. Most deep place Strait - 184 meters. One has only to imagine what will happen if a new ice age begins and the level of the World the ocean will fall at 190 meters. The Red Sea will cease to communicate with the waters of the Indian Ocean and in Once again will become dead. However, this does not threaten our contemporaries and descendants. Such a decrease in the level of the World Ocean occurs over hundreds of thousands of years, therefore amazing beauty the sea that washes the shores of Sudan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and, of course, Egypt will delight everyone who wishes to see all the wealth of the underwater world that can only be found in the Red Sea or on the Barrier Reefs.
Scientists have found that the Red Sea quite often lost its “connection” with the oceans, and its coast dried up and was covered with salt. As a result of this, even now on the shores of the Red Sea, alas, you will not find lush vegetation, and you will not be able to quench your thirst from a spring that is in full swing. Underground water also tastes salty. Surprisingly, even the rains in the Red Sea region will not give the soil life-giving moisture, they, like the sea and the springs near it, are salty.
Forest near the Red Sea
Yes, dear reader, you heard right, in the northernmost part of the Red Sea there is a forest consisting of mangroves. This forest is part of the nature reserve called Nabq. Only mangroves are able to grow in salt water and do not need constant access to the root system of oxygen.
This amazing plant is able to remove excess salt through its leaves, and life-giving fresh moisture nourishes the wood. Mangroves usually grow together in such a way that it is quite difficult for a person to get through them, and once in a certain area, you can easily find yourself in a trap from which it is impossible to get out without outside help. The mangroves of the Red Sea are home to a huge number of animals and birds, whose life is observed in the reserve by ornithologists and zoologists.
Flora and fauna of the Red Sea
If you say that The Red Sea is a true paradise for divers, fishermen and spearfishers., that would not be an exaggeration. One has only to put on a mask and pick up the phone, as already near the coast you can see a charming underwater world with many colorful corals, sponges, sea urchins and fish.
Sometimes it seems that each species competes with each other here in terms of brightness of color and unusual shapes. Warm and crystal clear waters The Red Sea allows many species of underwater flora and fauna to exist here, most of which are endemic. Life under water boils here and does not stop even late at night.
Only today, scientists who conduct research into the depths of the Red Sea have discovered and described almost 1,500 invertebrates, and almost the same number of fish species. Nearly 300 species of corals live in the waters of the Red Sea, the reproduction of which is a fantastic picture.
Huge sea turtles and frolicking dolphins complement the amazing landscape and tell the tourist that he is in a place where underwater life is revealed to a person in all its glory.
It is surprising that, according to ichthyologists, no more than 60% of the underwater inhabitants of the Red Sea have been discovered in our time. The greatest depth of this unique sea is more than 3 kilometers, which means that most deep-sea fish are not yet known to science. So far, only forty-three species of fish living at great depths have been discovered. Also, the Red Sea constantly poses more and more new mysteries to scientists. It is still unknown why about 30% of the inhabitants of the northern part of the sea cannot live in its other part.
One gets the impression that an invisible border does not allow them to move from north to south. Although the chemical composition of water and the temperature regime in these areas are almost identical. Maybe the reason lies in the word "almost"?...
Despite the extraterrestrial beauty of the underwater world, the Red Sea is fraught with a lot of dangers.. Touching the most beautiful corals, sponges or bizarre jellyfish in the sea is strictly prohibited. This is written in almost every tourist brochure. An injection sea urchin or the bite of a poisonous underwater snake, a toothy moray eel can lead to a burn, an allergic reaction, a lot of blood loss, and sometimes to the death of the victim.
When diving into the depths of the Red Sea, you must remember that it is home to 44 species of sharks. Some of them are quite harmless creatures that live only at great depths and feed on plankton or small fish. However, among them there are also the most dangerous species for humans, for example, the tiger shark, which often attacks a person for no apparent reason. Its mouth is littered with huge sharp teeth that can easily tear off a limb. Alas, but in Lately more and more attacks of tiger sharks on vacationers began to be noted, which, for the most part, most often ended fatally. There is evidence that a great white shark was seen in the Red Sea, which, even according to scientists, is a killing machine.
Washes the shores of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel and Jordan.
In the north, the Red Sea is connected by the Suez Canal with the Mediterranean Sea, in the south - by the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with the Arabian Sea.
The peculiarity of the Red Sea is that not a single river flows into it, and rivers usually carry silt and sand with them, significantly reducing the transparency of sea water. Therefore, the water in the Red Sea is crystal clear.
The climate on the Red Sea coast is dry and warm, the air temperature in the coldest period (December-January) during the day is 20-25 degrees, and in the hottest month - August, does not exceed 35-40 degrees. Due to the hot climate off the coast of Egypt, the water temperature even in winter does not fall below +20 degrees, and in summer it reaches +27.
Strong evaporation of warm water has turned the Red Sea into one of the most salty on the globe: 38-42 grams of salt per liter.
View from space The length of the Red Sea today is 2350 km, the width is 350 km (in its widest part), the maximum depth reaches 3000 meters in its central part. The area of the Red Sea is 450 thousand km².
From a geological point of view, the Red Sea is located in the rift zone on the border of the African and Arabian lithospheric plates.
The Red Sea is very young. Its formation began about 40 million years ago, when a crack appeared in the earth's crust and the East African Fault was formed. The African continental plate separated from the Arabian one, and between them in the earth's crust a pit was formed, which was gradually filled with sea water over thousands of years. The plates are constantly moving, so the relatively flat shores of the Red Sea diverge in different directions at a rate of 10 mm per year, or 1 m per century.
In the north of the sea there are two bays: Suez (depth up to 80 meters) and Aqaba, or Eilat. It is along the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat) that the fault passes. Therefore, the depth of this bay reaches large values (up to 1800 meters). The two bays are separated from each other by the Sinai Peninsula, in the south of which is the famous resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
There are few islands in the northern part of the sea, and only to the south of 17°N. they form numerous groups, the largest of them is Dahlak in the southwestern part of the sea.
One of the first descriptions of the Red Sea was made in the II century BC. e. Greek historian Agatarchides.
The Red Sea is polluted.
The source of plastic waste is not so much vacationers on the beaches. There are many testimonies of garbage being thrown openly from boats and ferries. It is difficult for a Bedouin to understand that the plastic he throws out harms their environment. For generations they have dealt only with organics, and this behavior is still considered the norm. The Bedouins to this day fish in the reserves and catch shellfish. In areas of intensive diving, corrals are damaged by beginner divers.
